D’Iberville Man Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison and 30 years of Supervised Release for Distribution of Images of Minors Engaging in Sexually Explicit Conduct

Gulfport, MS - A D'Iberville, Mississippi man was sentenced on March 10, 2026, to 11 years in prison, followed by 30 years of supervised release, for distributing images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, announced U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger of the Southern District of Mississippi and Robert Eikhoff, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Jackson Office.

In October 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") received information from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that Joshua Budinich, a 26-year-old male, was uploading child sexual abuse material on the Discord and Kik platforms.

Further investigation revealed that the defendant was chatting with other Discord users, sending child sexual abuse material to other users, and trading child sexual abuse material with them.

The defendant pled guilty in November 2025. The case was investigated by the FBI and the Mississippi Attorney General's Office, Cybercrime Division.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Smith prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.projectsafechildhood.govLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..